SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
867 SaaS: 80% yoy Growth, Badger Maps Passes $180k MRR
08 Dec 2017
Chapter 1: What is Badger Maps and how did it start?
This is the Top Entrepreneurs Podcast, where founders share how they started their companies and got filthy rich or crash and burn. Each episode features revenue numbers, customer counts, and other insider information that creates business news headlines. We went from a couple hundred thousand dollars to 2.7 million.
I had no money when I started the company.
It was $160 million, which is the size of many IPOs. We're a bit strapped. We have like 22,000 customers. With over 5 million downloads in a very short amount of time, major outlets like Inc. are calling us the fastest growing business show on iTunes. I'm your host, Nathan Latka, and here's today's episode. Hello, everyone. My guest today is Stephen Bollender.
After receiving his MBA from Stanford, he worked in sales at IBM, HP, and Google, where he was Google Enterprise's top sales executive in 2009. In 2012, he founded Badger Maps, the number one sales app in the Apple App Store, which helps field salespeople be more successful. Stephen, are you ready to take us to the top?
Chapter 2: How does Badger Maps generate revenue?
I am. Let's do it. All right. So we had you on back in episode. Okay. I don't remember what the episode was, but we had you on about a little less than a year ago. So about nine or 10 months ago, the company was healthy. You told us it was founded in 2012. For those not familiar, tell us what the company does and how you make money.
So, well, first, I'm Steven Benson. The person that does my PR is Anna Bolander. So you merged our names there.
Hey, just because that was not my fault. That is what she put in the name category, or he put in the name categories. That was not me.
Chapter 3: What is the sales cycle for Badger Maps?
That's amazing. She probably, you know, how many times do you fill out the last name form in your life? So her first name was Steven, and then she was like, oh, Bolander. Well, anyway, I'm Steven Benson. Steven Benson. Very good. Yeah. That's just, that's amazing. I'm going to give her some crap. So, so, uh, so, so what was the question? Yeah.
So tell us, yeah. So that was, we had you on back in episode five, five, nine and nathanmica.com forward slash the top five, five, nine. So for people not familiar with Badger or they missed that episode, what are you doing? What's your business model?
Chapter 4: How does the sales team structure work at Badger Maps?
How do you make money?
So what Badger does is we help field salespeople. Um, we, we have a variety of, of things in our solution that help, outside or field salespeople do their job more effectively. Things like finding new leads, building routes for them, helping them figure out their schedule for the day when they're in the field. And for those of you that don't know, a field is kind of industry jargon.
A field or an outside salesperson is a salesperson that meets face-to-face with their customers. So often they're going to their customers to talk to them about their products, etc.
Makes good sense. And what's your revenue model? Is it pure SaaS?
Yeah, it's pure SaaS. So it's $9 or $35 or $74 a month, depending on which version of the product you want to get. And kind of a personal line, a business line, an enterprise line. And so it's a relatively inexpensive product.
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Chapter 5: What are the key metrics for Badger Maps' growth?
I mean, it's monthly. You can get it annually too for a discount.
What's the average customer paying per month if I forced you just to focus in there?
Um, average customer is in the business plan. So it's a $35 a month plan.
Okay. Got it. And, um, you obviously, you told us last time you started the company back in 2012. Uh, what's the company today in terms of team size?
Uh, about 55 people.
Okay. And how are you like break down that 55 for me? Are they, where are they based and what are their roles typically?
Um, so there's, uh, well, I guess in, in a company of this nature, you're either making the stuff or you're selling and marketing the stuff or you're supporting those two activities. So,
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Chapter 6: How does Badger Maps manage customer churn?
A bunch of them are in engineering. How many? Probably 12 or so in engineering. And then there's a bunch in sales, probably, I don't know, 20-ish in sales. A bunch in marketing, maybe 10, I don't know. And then there's things like HR and PR, like Anna, the person that you were coordinating with, PR.
Um, and, uh, why do you, why so many salespeople, this is a low price point, uh, even on an annual contract value, it's hard to put touch on that price point. What are they doing?
Well, I mean, so it's, it's cheap for one person, but if you had a team of a hundred, it becomes an enterprise type deal, right? So it, it, it, it's worth having field salespeople or salespeople working with, uh,
working with our customers directly to make them successful and, you know, and get their questions answered, get them in a, get them in a trial and kind of walk them through a trial, make sure they, they get the most out of their time with the product and see how it can help them.
Yeah. But I imagine you can't put touch on every free trial. So what kinds of things are you doing upfront to qualify the leads to figure out who to put those sales reps on? Cause if, if that one $35 a month seat doesn't upgrade, you can start to go negative in terms of return on that customer fairly quickly.
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Chapter 7: What strategies does Badger Maps use for customer acquisition?
Well, we actually try to touch everyone. And you're right. By the book, it doesn't return much if we do. But because it's a relatively quick and short sales cycle, there's not a ton of touch on it.
What's the sales cycle? How many months typically?
Oh, it's three weeks for an individual person. Two to three weeks for an individual. And a company can be anything. We've had companies... I mean, I was just meeting with a big company the other day that I flew to meet with and they have 2000 sales reps and, you know, they've been kicking the tires for a year and a half. Right.
But so a big company is going to they take longer to make decisions often. But we've also we've had big companies decide within a month that they that they want to get this for their whole sales team. So it really it kind of depends.
Chapter 8: What advice does Steven have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
But. We do reach out to even just someone who looks like a single seat deal. We'll at least reach out to them and ask them if they have questions about how to use the product. We'll set it up for them, get them successful. That call usually takes 20 minutes or so and even 15 minutes. And so it's not that big of an investment.
And if they buy an annual product that's worth $420 a year, it's worth the salesperson's time to get them on the phone and walk them through that.
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You were a salesperson and it sounds like a top tier salesperson before you started this. How have you structured your sales team's comp? Is it typical kind of a base plus commission?
Uh, no, I wouldn't say it's typical. We, uh, the, because it's a, it's a small price point, it's more of a team based model. And, uh, and it's, and it's just, it's, it's a more of just a more of a salary and the team. And it's also, I mean, we're a small team at this point, obviously.
So it's more as a group where we're eating what we kill, but we have a, it's very, it's a very different field than a lot of other sales organizations.
Tell us how you do it. I'm curious.
So the, uh, in most sales organizations, everyone's very much on their own. And, and, you know, it's kind of a, a lot of times you even see people really, you know, account-based marketing and in that world, especially you'll see a salesperson really generating their own leads often, or at least most of their own leads and, uh, and then really working independently, closing the deal.
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